Concert Video: Fine China at Cornerstone 2002

Fine China’s breathy, ’80s-inspired pop music was a nice change of pace at Cornerstone.

Back in the early ​‘00s, I purchased a MiniDV recorder and set out to record as many concerts as possible. The audio and video quality isn’t the greatest — some of the videos are shaky because I recorded them in the middle of the concert venue without a tripod or microphone — but the nostalgia factor is off the charts.

Fine China’s breathy, ​‘80s-inspired pop music — think New Order meets The Smiths — was always a nice change of pace from the punk and hardcore sounds that usually dominated Cornerstone. And as an added bonus here, Map’s Josh Dooley joined them onstage on guitar. The band had released their sophomore album, You Make Me Hate Music, earlier in the year, so songs like ​“Hug Every Friend” were featured in the set.

As I recall, Fine China actually played twice at Cornerstone 2002, on July 2 and July 3 on the New Band Stage (though they weren’t really a new band). Also, here’s an interview with Fine China from Cornerstone 2002.